First Ride at Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff's!

Tom and I Outside the Barn at the Schafhof Where Nina is Staying

The Linsenhoff's Place on the Property

Inside the Barn Nina is Staying In - One of the Barns on the Property

One of the Offices on the Property to the Left, and the Linsenhoff's to the Right

The Outside of the Barn Nina is in on the Far Right

Office to the left, and Nina's New House to the Right

More Pictures of the Barn Nina is Staying In

The Bridge Connecting Where You Park Your Car to the Courtyard and

Main Barn Area + Fountain

Courtyard Area

Us Walking from the Car, Past one of the Barns Housing the Younger Horses to the Left

Hey Everyone! So today was awesome! We got to watch the apprentices at Ann Kathrin’s work the 3 year olds today. They would go in groups of 4 to 5, and work all through the morning. At one point, I made a comment to the effect of, “I can’t believe how well behaved these 3 yr old horses are!” IMMEDIATELY after that, 3 out of the 4 babies reared, leap out of the air, gave a HUGE buck and tried to take off galloping. Oops! Nina and I were hand walking around the arena at the time. She was not amused to have 3 babies flying down the long side coming up her butt. It was pretty funny. She was like, “Jaimie seriously...you stick me on a plane for over 30 hours and then this. You’re gonna get it.” Meagan and I also got to watch Mathias school two of his horses in between the groups of 3 and 4 year olds. SO AWESOME! You learn so much just by watching. Not being able to understand a lot of what was said by Claus as he was teaching Mathias was frustrating, but watching Mathias school his horses was a great learning opportunity in terms of watching the exercises he performed with the horses and watching his seat, hands, and body positioning for different movements. At lunch time, when everyone gets a 2 hour lunch break with a hot lunch served to them (this is a tradition Canada needs to pick up), Meagan and I got on our horses and rode for a little bit.

Nina was great! She was still mad at me from before, and saw this as a prime opportunity to let me know. But the good news was that she was feeling fresh and got it all out of her system. Over all, our light ride today ended up being awesome! After that, we put her in the drying stall. On the wall is a control board that allows you to move this thing that looks like a tanning bed, up and down. There are all different colored lights on it and you can turn on this air blower thing that shoots warm air down at you, and sucks it back up again. Nina was dry in 2s flat! I definitely need to get one of these for back home!

Tonight we walked to dinner through the town we are staying in, Kronberg. It has cobblestone roads that are one lane wide in between rows and rows of German houses, shops, and bakeries. There are white christmas lights strung from house to house and a foot of snow on the ground. The town also has bells that chime on the hour, and can be heard everywhere. It is also positioned on top of a large, steep, hill, and some of the views are gorgeous! I think I could definitely live here, learn German, ride, and have an amazing time.

That is it for me tonight. I am trying to get the videos of the horses to load but the internet is super slow in the hotel we are at! I will keep trying!

p.s. THANK YOU TOM AND ELLEN DVORAK FOR THE SURPRISE NEW QUARTER SHEET WITH NINA'S NAME ON IT!!!!

-As a side note...I was able to post one of the videos taken of the horses on the cargo plane to my facebook page, so you can check it out there. I am still trying to get the videos to upload to this blog but the internet is being very frustrating here!!